backdated to the end of the tournament/after the illuminated do their thing

[hakodate]

Seems like now might be a good time to get ourselves on the same page.

[To put it lightly. They've had days to wander around, get acclimated, listen to the gossip...and now between everyone wrapping things up to return to their places after the tournament, and the infodump so thoughtfully provided by the local mage-types, the real work begins.]

People are packing up to head home. That leaves us with a lot of possible leads to follow. I know at least a couple of us were thinking of following Jaeger back to Flamegard; Verreuil was talking about following the guy in yellow.

Westgard's hiring knights, and from the way people were talking when the notice went up, it sounds like the offer is unusually generous. Might be a good way to get in the loop on that; it's sounding more and more to me like the throne is why we're here. Keeping an eye on the nobles is probably in our best interest.

And I doubt that's everything worth looking into, obviously - that's just the shit I've already heard about. Anyone got anything to add? We're gonna have to divide and conquer here, but it helps if we know what we're dividing to begin with.

[And after a moment, he adds -]

All of mine from back home, consider reporting in here an order, not a courtesy. [Because goddamn he's got too many of you to keep track of, throw him a bone here.]

Comments

[fatalstriker]

Hey, I won't argue with that. If it happened this time, it definitely wouldn't be the first.

[he definitely understands exactly what hijikata means.] We can't know what it'll lead to unless we go, right? It may be nothing, but we could end up pretty surprised with what happens when we're not directly under the royals' noses. [there's probably a bit more freedom to investigate that way, at least.]

[hakodate]

Right. And if nothing else, I'd rather make sure the kids don't inadvertently introduce this world to modern warfare.

["Modern" is perhaps a bit loose here, but it's modern as he understands it, anyway.]

[fatalstriker]

No idea what your idea of "modern warfare" is, but if we've got ones like that headed in, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on them. I don't think making more trouble is part of the objective here.

[says yuri, who has inadvertently made more trouble when he shouldn't have in the past. but his idea of trouble doesn't mean blowing up dragons with cannons. or blowing up anything with cannons, really.]

[hakodate]

Not as modern as some people here, but plenty modern enough for a world like this, I'd say.

Sometimes more trouble is on the agenda, but I'd rather not jump straight to it.

[fatalstriker]

If it's the only way, it's the only way, though. [stated more as an agreement, rather than anything else.]

Especially if some good leads don't come in soon. We can only blindly wander around for so long.

[hakodate]

I think our best leads are going to come from elsewhere, but if nothing else, I'd like to find out whether Flamegard's disinterested in the politics or just playing the waiting game.

[fatalstriker]

For all we know, finding that out could be the lead we're looking for, though.

[hakodate]

Could be. Only way we're going to find out anything is by getting out there and looking for it, anyway.

[fatalstriker]

Not gonna argue that. I want to see what the big deal is, anyway.

[hakodate]

About the dragons?

[fatalstriker]

Got it in one.

[hakodate]

Jaeger can probably tell us more on the road.

If you can put up with how excitable he gets, anyway. Didn't seem much different from his usual personality, from what I've seen so far.

[fatalstriker]

Excitable's not much of a problem. I've got some friends that more than qualify in that department, so I don't think there's much to worry about there. Even if there was, if it's going to clue us in, I can't complain much.

[hakodate]

Excitable's pretty helpful when you need some shit explained, true.

[Nobody ever dare tell Ootori that he just said that. X( ]

[fatalstriker]

Most of the time, yeah. If this kid's like you say, it probably shouldn't be much of a problem getting some info that'll help us out.

[but hijikata, he'd be so proud and excited to hear that...]

[hakodate]

It'll help us in the short term, at least. We'll see about the long run.

[He's still not sure that Flamegard is going to find them the clues he's hoping for, but...well. Sio and Eren without a responsible adult scream pls no.]

[fatalstriker]

Something's always better than nothing. Who knows when that short term info will lead into something bigger.

[yuri's learned all too well that sometimes the most innocuous things can be tied to the big picture, so he's not quick to rule anything out.]

[hakodate]

We've had the pieces fit together in some pretty weird ways before. No way to know until we get started.

[fatalstriker]

Pretty much. Any idea how many people are tagging along?

[hakodate]

Not sure yet. Ogura's in, I'm in...and I'll probably wind up bringing a few more along.

[Mama duck comes with ducklings.]

[fatalstriker]

[he understands what that's like. if his ducklings were around, he'd be doing the same.]

Sounds like we've got a pretty decent party if things start to get out of hand. [though, that's also assuming any of them can fight. oh well.]

[hakodate]

Not all fighters, but...survivors, at least.

[For all the trouble Chizuru manages to find, she also manages her way out of it well enough, even if she needs a little help sometimes.]

[fatalstriker]

Eh, close enough, right? Long as we've got a few who can fight, the rest'll be cake.

[okay, so maybe yuri's worldview on fighting is a little lackadaisical, but that's not a bad thing.]

[hakodate]

And as long as the rest know how and when to keep their heads down.

[Which with Chizuru and Ibuki...can be questionable.]

[fatalstriker]

I can't say I expect everyone to be that good when things start to get crazy. It just means we've gotta keep on our toes.